working out belly

[nyc_transplant]

Hi all,

 

I am a 26 year old male. I recently started working out quite a bit and lost 20 lbs! I lost most of my blubber everywhere, including my belly. However, I do not have muscle there, so it looks OK, but could be better.

 

Any work out that I could do to make things better. A 6 pack would be great, but I don't really need that, just get it a little bit more tone.

 

Thanks in advance

[underpants]

Good for you, working out is great and seeing results is rewarding.

 

I would suggest the old incline bench, they are not too expensive, mine collapes for easy storage. Be sure to use correct posture and and work up the intensity. Slow and steady....listen to your body and don't push for results too fast. You could start on a lower incline then work up to a more steep incline. You could incorporate weight plates (again be mindful of the lower back always). You should get a 6 pack in less then 3 months.

 

I do reps of 25 and every 5 or so I twist a little on the up motion to work on the lateral obliques. When I am feeling sassy I will grab a 5 or 10 lb plate and do a few reps with that. I have my bench positioned so that I can see my form in a mirror and make sure I am in line. If I start to slouch, I tone down the intensity.

 

Good luck.

[wookinpanub]

underpants has it right. to build muscle, use mainly weighted ab excercises.

[Enema]

For visible abs you need to get your bodyfat down to around 10%.

 

Not easy to do and just doing ab exercises will 9 times out of 10 not get you visible abs unless you have low BF to match.

 

It goes in layers: muscle, fat, skin. Which is why your fat% has to be so low to see the muscle.

 

Good luck! If you can handle it, cut down on all the "ose" in your diet. Lactose, Glucose and yes, Fructose!

[wookinpanub]

enema has it right too.

 

i did some reading where i could and here is what i have to offer on the subject. there are two major types of ab workouts (as there really are with any kind of weight training). those that build fast twitch fibers, in this case those are weighted ab excercises. these types of excercises build the grooves and how far your abs protrude when visible. so if you do a lot of these, you will have like deep valleys between them.

 

the second is developing slow twitch, or endurance fibers. these are more of doing low weight with high reps, ie crunches. if your bf% is low enough (as enema said) and you do enough of these, they will help to burn the excess fat in your middle section.